There are six new possible cases of the West Nile Virus in Windsor and Essex County, bringing the total number of confirmed or possible local cases this summer to 10.
“It certainly again emphasizes the need for increased precautions on the part of individuals in Windsor-Essex because whether or not those six cases are in fact confirmed, it does bring us up to 10 possible or confirmed cases and that’s the largest number that we’ve had since 2005 when we had 23 cases identified,” said Medical Officer of Health Dr. Allen Heimann.
One of the four cases previously identified, a 68-year-old man, is in critical condition at Hotel Dieu-Grace Hospital with encephalitis.
None of the other nine possible West Nile sufferers are in hospital or suffering serious symptoms.
Last year there were four confirmed cases, in 2010 there was one, and in 2009 and 2008 there were none.
The 10 local cases range in age from a 25-year-old woman to a 71-year-old man. The 10 are made up of six women and four men.
“Even though they haven’t been confirmed, I think it looks like West Nile Virus is more prevalent here than it’s been in the last few years,” said Heimann.
“It’s always difficult to talk about the number of cases but certainly when we look at the number of labratory-identified cases, confirmed or otherwise, I think it does indicate that we need to take this potential illness very seriously.”
It could take weeks for official confirmation of the suspected cases, Heimann said.
“Eighty to 90 per cent of the cases have no symptoms whatsoever and about 10 per cent have flu-like symptoms and it’s only a small number of cases that have severe symptoms,” said Heimann.
None of the 10 people who may have the virus have travelled outside of Essex County.
The six new cases were all identified as a result of the individuals with symptoms visiting a physician.

Two of the first four cases were identified when the victims gave blood to Canadian Blood Services.
Mosquito testing by the health unit continues, with 21 test pools testing positive in Windsor, Amherstburg, Essex and Kingsville as of Tuesday. In a press release the health unit says “this wide distribution of pools indicates that the virus is prevalent throughout Windsor-Essex.”
Across the province as of Tuesday there have been 49 confirmed cases, with 30 of them in the Toronto area. Last year across Ontario there were 24 confirmed cases.
There have been 312 contaminated mosquito pools across the province, compared to 136 last year.
In the southern U.S. there is talk of a West Nile epidemic, with the largest number of cases recorded in several years in several jurisdictions.
“I think that in the states they’ve probably had, certainly in Texas, they’ve had the numbers that had certainly more problems with heat,” Heimann said.
“I think their meteorological conditions are much worse than ours. But just looking at the number of cases that we’ve had so far does give me cause for concern. It’s important that we get this message of continued precautions out on a regular basis as we’ve been doing through the summer, we’ll continue our monitoring program, continue our larviciding program and we’ll continue to follow up this issue, but still six additional cases bringing our numbers up to 10 possible confirmed it’s certainly something to be concerned about and still get that prevention message in front of people.”
U.S. authorities say they’ve never seen as many cases of West Nile infection as early in the year as they are seeing this year.
“We’re in the midst of one of the largest West Nile outbreaks ever seen in the United States,” said Dr. Lyle Petersen, who oversees mosquito-borne illness programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
During a teleconference, Peterson said 1,118 illnesses have been reported so far this year in the U.S., about half of them in Texas. In an average year, fewer than 300 cases are reported by mid-August.
There have also been 41 deaths this year, the CDC said.
The mild winter, early spring and hot summer in parts of the country have officials concerned this could be a bad year for West Nile virus in Canada as well.
With files from Canadian Press

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